VANCOUVER - The RCMP have concluded two tonnes of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer that appeared to go missing on the eve of the Vancouver Winter Olympics was not stolen.
The Mounties say they've wrapped up an exhaustive investigation and found there was no evidence of theft or other criminal involvement in an inventory discrepancy that left two one-tonne bags out of a shipment of 6,000 unaccounted for.
The RCMP say a high level of security was in place throughout the process of manufacture, transport and storage of the ammonium nitrate, and that the most reasonable explanation is that errors in the administrative process led to the discrepancy.
The investigation, led by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team and which included the intelligence group responsible for the Olympics, conducted more than 200 interviews with anyone who came in contact with the fertilizer, as well as audits at docks in the Vancouver area and offices in Edmonton, Calgary and Salt Lake City.
Terminal operator Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMP) reported the ammonium nitrate missing on Dec. 31, telling the RCMP it had disappeared from its facility last fall after being shipped to Vancouver from Alberta.
The company called back Jan. 6 to say a clerical error was to blame but police continued to investigate because the fertilizer can become a powerful explosive when mixed with diesel fuel, as it was in the 1995 Oklahoma City truck bombing that killed 168 people in a federal building.